Sport

Selection of books covering the English soccer scene

The Overcoat Men: How Two Unsung Heroes Staved Off the Bulldozers and Saved Their Football Club from Oblivion Paperback – 12 Aug. 2019
by Mark Hodkinson (Author)
Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
ISBN-10: 1785315250
ISBN-13: 978-1785315251

The story of two men who almost single-handedly saved their football club from extinction. In the early 80s David Kilpatrick and Graham Morris spied architects' plans to turn Spotland, the home of their beloved, beleaguered Rochdale AFC, into a housing estate. They set about saving the club but first had to take on the alleged 'enemy within'. They worked tirelessly, persuading companies to write off debts while securing loans and donations, a tricky proposition when your club is bottom of the Football League. Meanwhile, the town of Rochdale was on its knees, the last of the cotton mills closing down. The limit of most fans' investment in their club is routinely the price of a season ticket. Directors often risk their houses and businesses, sometimes forfeiting marriages, families and their health in the name of their club. People such as Kilpatrick and Morris - moderately wealthy local businessmen - who serve on football club boards are the unseen, unsung heroes of football, even in the modern age.

A History of Football:

Authors and contributors
By (author) Michael Heatley.
ISBN 13: 9780750939539

The history of football is being written at a rapid rate - but it only makes sense when placed in the context of a century in which association football developed, came of age and established itself as the global game. This book chronicles that.Love it or hate it, football is the biggest sporting news of the new millennium. The history of football is being written at a rapid rate - but it only makes sense when placed in the context of a century in which association football developed, came of age and established itself as the global game. This book chronicles that progress decade by fascinating decade, pinpointing the great teams and dynasties, from Preston at the beginning of the twentieth century to Manchester United and Arsenal at the end. Playing legends from Matthews through Best to Henry are also analysed. The rise of the European competition, which saw Real Madrid establish the benchmark for club sides like Liverpool and Juventus to follow, is covered in detail - as is the World Cup, stage for such memorable talents as Pele, Cruyff, Maradona and Ronaldo. The future of the game is also debated: will the top matches of the 2050s be played under cover, on artificial grass, between the cream of Europe's teams in a new Superleague? Source by Amazon

Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics:

by Jonathan Wilson Published
28/05/2009
Publisher
Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
ISBN
9781409102045.

Whether it's Terry Venables keeping his wife up late at night with diagrams on scraps of paper spread over the eiderdown, or the classic TV sitcom of moving the salt & pepper around the table top in the transport cafe, football tactics are now part of the fabric of everyday life. Steve McLaren's switch to an untried 3-5-2 against Croatia will probably go down as the moment he lost his slim credibility gained from dropping David Beckham; Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, was often brought to task for trying to smuggle the long ball game back into English football. Here Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the modern game, traces the world history of tactics from modern pioneers right back to beginning where chaos reigned. Along the way he looks at the lives of great players and thinkers who shaped the game, and probes why the English, in particular, have 'proved themselves unwilling to grapple with the abstract'.

Believe in the Sign

Mark Hodkinson

Pub: December 2006
ISBN 1-904-59017--9

Believe in The Sign

Believe in the Sign is about a damp corner of England where nothing much but everything happens. It is a ‘sort of a memoir' of a normal, average boy who would have grown up happily average and normal but for a dark and perverse passion: the seductive lure of masochistic devotion to a no-hope, near-derelict football club. more..

The Second Half

Hunter Davies.

Pub: October 2006
ISBN 1-904590-14-4



Sing it loud:there's only one Hunter Davies, one Hunter Davies. And he's still, in all fairness Brian, bang on top form, doing well, the lad.
The Second Half is another collection of his personal pieces from the New Statesman covering the past three domestic seasons: the Euro Championship of 2004 and the 2006 World Cup when he unexpectedly became Wayne Rooney's top buddy. more..

The Fan

Hunter Davies

Pub. November 2003
ISBN 1-904590-02-0





The Fan is a collection of very personal, unusual pieces about his life as a supporter. He observes football in its sovereignty of the late 1900s and early 2000s and tackles the big topics of the day: Beckham's haircuts, high finance, the price of pies, the size of match day programmes, the enormous wages, the influence of Sky TV, England's numerous managers.
more...